Faith rewarded for Millis girls basketball state champs

The morning after winning the Division 4 state title, with a trophy in hand and no games left to play, Millis girls basketball coach Dave Fallon still found himself falling back into old habits.

By Jared KeeneDaily News staff

The morning after winning the Division 4 state title, with a trophy in hand and no games left to play, Millis girls basketball coach Dave Fallon still found himself falling back into old habits."I watched a little film just to make sure we won," Fallon said with a laugh Saturday afternoon.The Mohawks didn't just emerge victorius Friday night. They blew out North champion New Mission by 21 points.After taking a night to celebrate with friends and family and sleeping on it, Fallon had an opportunity to reflect on what his team had accomplished."I think what we did has finally sunk in," he said. "Like I said last night, I'm just so happy for the kids because I think it serves as validation for the work we put in during the season as well as the offseason. For the juniors and the seniors that only won one game two years when we went 1-19, this was pretty special. Two years ago was the first time we hadn't made the postseason since 2003, I believe, so that was a tough year for the program. But credit to the kids and the coaches. Us coaches just kept telling the kids to keep working hard and it'll come."As much as the title meant to Fallon, he couldn't stress enough how excited he was for the players."It's honestly really special," Fallon said. "When you see kids crying, some of which I've never seen that emotional before, it means a lot to see how much the kids cared and with this group, they got what it all meant. To see some of those kids get emotional was just really touching. Again, it just showed how much they truly cared and how much they understood what it took to be a champion."Millis entered this year's postseason with a .500 record at 10-10 and was seeded 15th out of 15 teams in the Central sectional. Part of the reason for the Mohawks' dominant tournament run, however, lies within the league that it plays in — the Tri-Valley League.Week after week during the regular season, Millis found itself up against the likes of upper-division tournament qualifiers such as Medfield, Bellingham, Hopkinton, and Westwood, among others. And while playing in the TVL resulted in some tough defeats for the Mohawks, it only made them better and helped prepare them for the tournament."It's really about the competition," Fallon said. "Some people don't know a ton about the TVL, but there's been several programs that have had a ton of success, both in the league and in the postseason. Our league has excellent coaches as well. For us, playing a league game against a Medway team that didn't make the playoffs helps because they're well-coached and it prepares us for what to play against. If you don't come to play in our league, you're going to lose, which is credit to how well-prepared the coaches are."Besides being battle-tested in terms of its schedule, Millis was also mentally tested during the regular season.Fallon mentioned that there was a point when his team stood at 6-2 before losing its next four games. Losing four in a row can be frustrating in itself, but what made it even more frustrating was the fact that none of those defeats were by more than seven points."We just couldn't find a way to win during that stretch," Fallon said. "It was tough for us. But the kids stuck with it and kept working hard. Near the end of the season, we also lost back-to-back games in overtime. We had to grow and be able to finish games. Those games we lost helped us because we learned how to finish games out and make plays when we really needed to."